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WHILE YOU WERE WORKING: GM agrees to cough up big bucks for putting off alerting the public to problems with millions of cars; The top health official at the Department of Veterans Affairs resigned — but he was retiring anyway; Maybe you should hold off on buying stock in weed retailers, the SEC warns; and commencement season is rapidly becoming protest season. Now, off to the races.

DOT FINES GM $35 MILLION IN RECALL PROBE: You’ve likely heard about the $35 million fine GM agreed to pay today as penance for dragging its feet in reporting an ignition switch problem affecting millions of cars. Kevin Robillard and Kathryn Wolfe dig [politico.pro/1k8DnnM] into how GM’s fine may be the impetus needed to increase federal caps on civil penalties: “While the fine is the most allowed by law, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx repeated the administration’s pleas Friday for Congress to increase the maximum fine in such cases almost tenfold, to $300 million. That will send ‘an even stronger message that delays will not be tolerated,’ he said."

VA HEALTH CHIEF RESIGNS: The top health official at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Robert Petzel, has resigned. Petzel testified Thursday with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki before a Senate panel on the unfolding scandal over treatment delays at veterans hospitals. However, Petzel had already been scheduled to retire — remaining in his position until the Senate confirms Jeffrey Murawsky as his successor. Murawsky was nominated for the post earlier this month.

PUFF, PUFF PASS ON POT STOCKS, SEC SUGGESTS: The SEC is seeing a rising number of investor complaints about marijuana-related investments as states have legalized the drug, the agency said today in an investor alert [1.usa.gov/1nXSEIB]. The SEC has suspended trading in the stock of five companies that claim to have operations related to the marijuana industry, including a suspension today for Denver-based FusionPharm. The SEC said it took action against the companies because information on their operations was questionable and two were engaged in potential illegal activity. "Fraudsters often exploit the latest innovation, technology, product, or growth industry — in this case, marijuana — to lure investors with the promise of high returns," the SEC said in the alert. Hitting on a controversial federal-state conflict, the SEC in the alert warned investors that marijuana companies they invest in might be at risk of prosecution because of a federal ban.

SPEECH, INTERRUPTED: Caitlin Emma with the curious trend of students protesting commencement speakers [politico.pro/QNZ5BM]: "Students across the country are protesting commencement speakers of all political varieties. Rutgers students balked at Condoleezza Rice and her ties to the Iraq War. Smith College kids and professors threatened to jeer IMF director Christine Lagarde’s monetary policies. And Robert Birgeneau faced protests at Haverford College over an incident involving campus police and batons. All the high-profile speakers are taking a pass.”

— Latest commencement casualty: Jill Abramson pulls out of plans to attend Brandeis University graduation but will still deliver the address at Wake Forest University in North Carolina on Monday. POLITICO: politi.co/1oygEEM

ACA ADVISER APPOINTED TO KEY ROLE: “President Barack Obama has chosen health care aide Kristie Canegallo to serve as a deputy chief of staff tasked with policy implementation on a range of issues, including the Affordable Care Act, expanding internet access for schools and ending the war in Afghanistan, the White House said Friday.” POLITICO: politi.co/1gwORT6

— A POLITICO poll found that voters aren’t convinced that the debate over the ACA is over: politico.pro/1n4DOPb

TODAY’S POLICY NEWS:

FCC VOTE ON NET NEUTRALITY FIRST STEP ON LONG, WINDING ROAD: Brooks Boliek gives the lay of the land [http://politico.pro/RHQQrZ]: “The clock started ticking on the agency’s final action with the release of the notice of proposed rulemaking. Now interested parties — whether a company, interest group or just an average citizen — will have 60 days to submit comments on the plan. After those two months, there will be another 60 days for replies when the interested parties can pick apart the initial comments. And then it will be September — with a long way still to go before a final rule.”

SPACEFLIGHT COMPANIES FEAR RULE WILL GROUND BUSINESS PLANS: Adam Behsudi on spaceflight and satellites [politico.pro/1gOzP5s]: The State and Commerce departments published new regulations Tuesday that will provide relief to the U.S. satellite industry, easing export controls on most commercial satellites and their parts. Not so for the suborbital spacecraft industry. …The rule, part of a broader effort to reform U.S. export controls, will make satellite parts more viable for export by changing their categorization. It will move them from the highly protected defense-related items on the State Department’s U.S. Munitions List to the sensitive, but less-stringently guarded products on the Commerce Control List, overseen by the Commerce Department. The change is expected to usher in a rebirth for the U.S. satellite industry.”

FEDS OFFER NO WAY TO MEASURE CYBERSECURITY FRAMEWORK: David Perera with more [http://politico.pro/Tc52e7]: “The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s trademark is obsession with measurement. It tells time to within quadrillionths of a second; it counts fractions of nanometers. Yet when the agency released its much-anticipated cybersecurity framework in February, it did so without a way to measure whether the nation’s critical industries were actually going to follow any of the cybersecurity guidelines, or even use the voluntary framework at all.”

— AFT President Randi Weingarten will be in Topeka Saturday to speak at a Legacy Walk from the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site to Sumner Elementary School, one of the schools in the case from which the ruling draws its name. She’ll also host a roundtable with local community members and civil rights leaders. The 60th anniversary of the landmark ruling is Saturday.

—The Sierra Club and other environmental groups are organizing events across the U.S. Saturday for a “Day of Action against Dirty Fuels.” Details: http://bit.ly/1mYGxxT